DECE vs. KEYCHEST - confirmed progress in Digital Distribution

DECE is starting make moves, at just the right time. After its creation over a year ago, DECE (standing for Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem) made up of big entertainment players like Warner Bros., Lionsgate, FOX, and Paramount to name a few, have been reviewing ways to bring content to as many platforms as possible. The link included is focused on Disney's recent KEYCHEST announcement, which is a game changer in itself, and DECE, and how Disney did not opt in w. DECE, but went out on its own (note: Disney has been working on stealth digital initiatives in Asia for years) to create one sustainable and fully baked option for consumers. The problem with this is that DECE has most of the major content player's in the industry, and Disney's KEYCHEST, is well just Disney, unless they can convince DECE to utilize some of KEYCHEST'S technology and concepts into their plans.

However, as it all plays itself out, the U.S. content providers and players start the new decade in the driver's seat as no matter what anyone thinks the future of digital content distribution and business models are being set in the U.S., including the formats for such.

While Europe and Asia have been the leaders for the last decade, the U.S. and the big content players will be the decider's and staging where content will be delivered, and how the financing will be structured for the next while. The reason. Content is king. And now that we are in 2010 and many steps have been taken to review and realign large organizations, LA and SF are at the forefront of these changes, and specifically LA, as the content creation capital of the world. With that in mind, the recent announcements from players this week and last, are huge and only make the beginning of this new decade for content creators and stakeholders even more exciting as all platforms mature, and most importantly, how content is created and financed.

Spotify - A real music model brought to you by advertising

While most people in the U.S. might not have heard of Spotify before, it is and has been hailed as a workable business model that both music companies and the music fan have been able to embrace.
Spotify recently gained attention throughout Europe and many parts of the world (where Spotify is available, which means mostly Europe) for U2 choosing them as an official partner to help release their new album. There business model for the most part has been widely accepted by the music industry in all of the countries that they are available, but for some reason not the U.S., which based on their fast growth and enthusiastic arrival might change soon. Some people feel that it is the best music app on the planet, and now with the release of the libspotify platform where developers can now make their app that much better, the sky is the limit. Right now, Spotify provides music to the listener for free by inserting a short 20 second advertisement every 30 min. of free music, which for the most part is not that much, and has been widely accepted as alright by the user. They also have a subscription if for some reason the short ad is too much, but with their very large collection of music, the easy user interface, etc... it is the opinion of the majority that it works just fine.

International Digital Content at MIP TV

The annual TV conference in Cannes usually draws people form the TV business internationally, this year, as well for the past few years digital has taken a stronger presence at one of the best TV markets in the world.
Digital's presence could be seen from the caliber of the trade show booth showcasing new technologies and innovations from Yahoo on their new widget channel, to Zillion TV, to Discovery Channel, Comcast, et al... and the list goes on. The market included great keynote's from the advertising, TV, feature, and digital technology world on the future of content and the screens that we will be watching on, and the future revenue models of the future.

Each country had a contingent of distributors and channel's selling content, with events designed to showcase new TV formats and programs, as well as digital focused projects. Being it was my first time attending MIP, and that MIP has always been an international TV market, I was very impressed and surprised to see the new and flourishing markets, especially in digital, coming out of the middle-east and Africa.

While many people stated that MIP attendance was down, the deals were still strong with lots of new revenue platforms presenting themselves for next and new platforms and markets that are becoming the key revenue generators for the years to come.

The POOL - Network of advertisers

A large group of advertisers, brands, and online distribution portals, led by Starcom MediaVest Group and Vivaki Nerve Centre are joining together to create industry standards for new advertsing models, specifically focused on digtal distribution.

Many advertisers, brands, and content portals have been complaining for years of a lack of standards for the placement/packaging of advertising for content, on-line, and any other digital platform that presents an opportunity or landscape to have content/information delivered to an audience.

The "Pool" as it is called, brings standards to a collection of media "pooled together" for media buyers & agencies to choose from for added vaclinet value.

Starcom MediaVest Group and Vivaki , both led by Curt Hecht of Vivaki, will spearhead thr group and industry standards for online/digital ad-buys.

Starcom's advertising clients, that include Allstate, Applebee’s, Capital One and Nestle Purina, will be paired with content partners Broadband Enterprises, CBS Interactive, Discovery Communications, Hulu.com, Microsoft Advertising, Platform A and Yahoo!, to name a few, with the sole goal of streamlining and organizing the structure for digital ad-buys.

This is both strong and good news for content owners and creators who could possibly recieve a better accounting and higher ROI for their contemt, and on-line portals, who would recieve top dollar for their digita real estate.

If done right it could be win-win for all involved "POOL" parties, but if the standards are not managed effectively, it could creat more confusion and hysteria to an already, at times, confused space.

Lets hope for the win-win.

Is Mobile TV finally hit the U.S. - Let's wait to see numbers on market penetration first!

This week brought a huge announcement from a group of major TV stations at the annual CES in Las Vegas, commonly known as the Open Mobile Video Coalition. The "Coalition's" goal was to showcase and roll out some of the latest streaming TV options for consumers, and detail a snapshot of things to come. As everything in digital moves at light speed in a down market, the price point and entry into market for consumers to try and sample all of the offerings from the OMVC is hard not to try, because the price is FREE. As a way to entice and lure more people into the mobile TV space the coalition has been active in promoting great new devices from major manufacturers like LG Electronics, Kenwood (only mobile TV units in cars), The Harris Corp., Samsung and Delphi.

One of the major companies, LG, said it will offer up to five new products, all that will be capable of getting the standard Mobile DTV signals.

Currently in Asian countries where mobile TV has been active in consumers lives for awhile, the business model revolves from premium paid services to a'la carte and many offering of advertising sponsored content.

With the announcement yesterday it seems a like a solid way to introduce mobile TV, through advertising and sponsored programming, but then other issues come into play that sometimes people do not spend enough time on. The environment for mobile in U.S. cities. With geo-targeted advertising taking shape all over the country, U.S. consumers still are not as heavy users as there European and Asian counterparts, and this is where the environment issues comes into play. I many Asian and European cities transit is healthy, in the U.S., still many people are tied to their cars, which lowers the amounts of time people will spend watching, and which in-turn provides less revenue form advertising.

All n all, yesterday announcement was extremely positive, now we just need to change more of our habits, have better devices, and get ready to welcome one of the next best revenue generators in digital media, Mobile TV and all of the options of interactivity that comes with it.

Closed social networks the next fad? Maybe so...

As social networking expands, the niche aspect and sexiness of "select" & "exclusive" takes on a whole new turn as businesses get more into the social media thing through the usual suspects of Facebook, MySpace, etc... to engage their customers with "special offers'' that you need to sign up on the page for. Exclusive clubs go back a long time, and there are many on-line now like Small World http://www.asmallworld.net/login.php, and Black Card Cirlce https://www.blackcardcircle.com/, but the opportunity for companies, specifically in this hotels, takes the business model to a whole new place.

It is a way to take the LinkedIn style of networking to a whole new place that allows for more interaction, such as what the Pod hotels are doing with exclusive meet-ups for people staybing in their hotels, in some cases, planning to meet weeks in advance. This same exclusive group model can lend itself to so many ideas, such as any thing that is a chain or linked in group that provides opportunities to get together in other cities, while keeping exclusive company.

B2B Conferences take hit in down economy

Bound to happen, conferences and trade shows take hit as B2B events downscale as less companies look for other ways to get businesses talking to each other. This decision will definitely have reverberation in many ways, not just opportunities for business people to meet on their specific industry, catering, hotels, et al...

This could also be one one of the big reasons that MAC World will make next year their last, with CES definetely happy as they happen at the same time.

As companies test and samples new ways to reach their core constituency, B2B will always be around but will re-engineer itself as it looks to new ways to engage companies and clients, with the most likely avenue being web seminars ona regular basis, less glamaourus meet-ups and scaled down events, and possibly bi-yearly conferences.

Any way that it goes, conferences and events targeted towards the B2B market and in connecting business are core to... well business. They are needed, but hopefully they return and remain in a way not just focused on digital models as those sponosred parties are always a nice place to meet and discuss business.

MINI continues to innovate in advertising

This is a great story. Innovation in advertising, which in some cases translates to content. A German advertising agency has created a MINI ad that brings to life - literally - the new convertible that MINI is launching in Europe. A German company created a technology called Metaio, which is a form of augmented reality. The user takes the advertising out of the magazine and places it in front of their webcam. The picture then appears on the screen, replicating what it looks like but in a convertible style in 3D. Truly amazing.

This has so much potential and not just for advertising but for content companies in terms of intricate story lines, on-line gaming, etc.. The biggets opportunity is to utilize old fashioned media in a way that maintain's it "sexiness" while embracing and promoting what is here and what is next. No word on what U.S. companies are embracing this technlgy but definetly something keep an eye out for in an advetising or media campaign sometime soon.

Mobile CPM's levarage in U.S. market

Mobile CPM's are starting to come down from the high of $50 to $ 60.00 to an average of $15.00. That's a big bump, what's the affect for the sudden change in elevation and downward spiral? Many people measured the 50 - 60 dollar avg. into their financial projections, so that will come as a shock as mobile spreads thinner in terms of video. While the projections may be less than expected and favoured, it still offers many, many opportunities. Those opportunities exist in WalMart looking to sell the iPhone, thousands of homes & customers cancelling their home internet and cable TV packages, with droves of people using their mobile device as their key avenue to the internet. Mobile is here and will grow an dengage the user in more ways than people are using now, while video and other kinds of media is included in that, tangible and functional applications like grocery shopping lists, Point of Purchase, and too many to list. While the CPM drops for mobile ROI, the need for robust and targeted mobile apps and content, much of it delivered through advertising, grows at a fevered pace as companies try to provide the services, technolgy companies try to create grounbreaking apps, and content cerators try to engage an uaindece on the move. This all points to positive and sutainable growth over the next 6 months, and which might even surpass expectations and revenue projections again.

Can lack of development be good news for digital spend.

As the economy falters many people forget that all around people are trying to cut costs, and now we can include and add to that list the fall TV development schedule. Who knows what the real reason is and will it be the smart one, but as studios are looking to cut money due to a advertising slowdown most development schedules have been scaled by close to 30%. This presents two opportunities, one for original content for on-line, and two, for TV studios to rethink their strategy of the past few decades. The second one could be by revisiting a stripped down development schedule that is focused on and still develops and purchases original scripted & unscripted projects for TV, but rethinks how they promote those series. One way could be to produce short-form cost-effective programming content, embracing the on-line production model, and deliver in shorter pieces like interstitial and through various on-line portals. With this model advertising dollars could be spent on-line increasing revenue for some sites, most likely deals would be put in place with Hulu, YouTube, etc... to make sure that their shows are seen through their portals. If done properly it could save millions of dollars, although the prospect of job losses suck, but it is a model that should be tinkered with to see the merit of it, with themuch thought put into possible job losses.

Change is defenitely a coming...

Mobile advertising provides some up ina down market

Sequoia was one of many VC firms that recently stated they were pulling back the strings on new investment based on the recent market crash, and coming storm clouds. Somehow AdMob, and Seqoiua, and some other VC firms missed that memo. Any well. Ad-mob, a company that manages ad buys and advertising for distribution through mobile platforms, recently recieved another 15.7 million in a third round of funding, and specifically with Sequiao spear heding through their new "growth fund" of 1 billion.

While many companies have scaled back in these uncertain times it is still veyr important to realize two things:

Digital media is not slowing, and the U.S. market while very robust in terms of usage, lags behind many otehr countries in terms of technolgy and viable revenue models that actually work.

The mobile advertising market is definelty maturing with more companies and ahenghies looking at the plaform as avery viable and appealing way to reach their audiences, it still is far from its glory days.

So, overthe very short term it might not be that greta of anivestmetn, but looking at internationally a s ameasuring stick, as well aa in the U.S. as it moves rapidly towards a mobile focused economoy that is in man ways 70-90 english speaking, this is a very long-tail and briliant move as Afd-Mob is very well run and has a good product.

Lets look forwrad to seeing more of these balnced but forwrad looking funding announcements of mobile companies.

Does Out-of-home really provide the best ROI?

Out-of-home video has taken off the last for years as a place for content and targeted message to be seen. In Europe and parts of ASIA, Out-of-Home, specifically digital signage at grocers, malls, etc... are turning out to be a viable distribution platform for people with unique and targeted content to be seen while people get through their days.

Now with media buyers and content producers looking to reach new audiences, a new study shows that digital screens in grocery outlets and out-of-home might be the best place to get the best ROI. I know surprising at first but when considering the following it really is not that crazy after all.

Out-of-home includes screens on buildings large and small, as well as grocery stores, malls, and many other platforms that include receiving media on a screen other than the key 3 - mobile, internet, and TV.

If you are a media buyer or content producer, or someone just really interested in pricing engagement, then you would be interested in hearing that ROI has the best return on teh audinece remebering where and when tehy saw the ad. With a betetr return than TV and on-line maybe out-of-home is not such a bad place to reach an audience.

Robust growth in interactive ad spend and ROI

You can look at many different research papers, study' and metrics and can see from most if not all of them that traditional advertising is declining, and interactive is on the march - and steadily growing. As we move to a more wireless and digital world, one where we are on the go and receive our media through as many digital platforms as possible, the media buying and ROI will increase in areas that are showing the largest growth, in this case mobile/interactive/on-line/out-of-home.

With many metrics showing that the ROI is also much better, the following stats below will provide a better outlook on specefic areas of growth and information to back it up:

• 45% of 2007 interactive ad spending counted as display
• Paid search advertising accounts for 38% and is expected to grow.
• Google commanded a median 86% share of 2007 search inquiries in the survey’s sample of 35 countries, somewhat ahead of other industry samples.
• The mean online shopping spend per user in 2007 was estimated at $471, and the only country to break the $1,000 mark was Denmark.
• There is also strong positive correlation between the amount of broadband a country has and the internet’s share of advertising investment.
• Demographics alone will sustain growth in internet use among consumers for at least another generation, and possibly two, as those under 25 years old carry their habits into middle age and beyond.

The Power and draw of Social Media and it's ROI

Social media by most accounts can be seen as an additional draw for many consumers and fans of entertainment that allows for further and deeper engagement of content and brands offerings. While many of us champion the possibilities and opportunities daily on what we see is a strong opportunity to really engage people on-line and through the adjunct of communities, we now see another and very comprehensive study that shows people are actively looking for and want to have more engagement through on-line communities and digital interaction.
The study focuses on Americans and their desire to have companies engage and promote to them through social communities, with the following information additional food for thought for agencies, content producers, or any company looking to build their brand while offering an additional way to increase ROI.

• Americans think companies should use social networks to solve my problems (43%)
  
• Americans who want to provide feedback on a specific product and service (41%)
  
• Americans want new and exciting ways to be engaged and interact with a brand (37%)
  
• Americans want to be target-marketed through a specific on-line or interactive community (25%)

What is DECE and how does it affect the businss of multi-platform media

Since the advent and gravitation towards a total digital eco-system, one that provides the content we are looking for when we need it, with the power to bring and push that content to any device. Wit that being said, while many people look at Apple as the key go-to player and innovator in digital distribution, they have alos slowed growth in some ways by their heavy-handed focus on DRM. DRM is useful in some ways but with a maority of people now accessing their media from devices and platforms other than TV it has become a problem that has slowed the acceptance of a viable and sustainable business model for content creators and entrepeuners large and small.

DECE could literally be the straw that broke the camel's back, with the Camel not necesarily being Apple, but a colletive of comapnies that want to control the distribution of content on their devices or platforms.

What DECE does is bring together the largest electronic and media companies in the world with the key directive and goal of distributing and providing content to a market anxious to consume at a lower or fixed cost. With players like Alcatel-Lucent, Best Buy Co Inc, Cisco Systems Inc, Comcast, News Corp’s Fox Entertainment Group, Hewlett-Packard Co, Intel, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, Microsoft Corp, General Electric Co’s NBC Universal, Viacom Inc’s Paramount Pictures, Philips, Sony Corp, Toshiba, VeriSign, and Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros Entertainment, a cabal o fht biggest, it will hard for Apple not to come up with an alternaive model, or work with DECE for the ultimate good of the consumer.

Regardsless of the outcome this can only be good news to the digital marketplace, for both content creators and users.

The final presentattion will take place at CES in January where DECE will launch their initiatives to the world.

ROI on Japan's interactive mobile poster experiment

Japan is clearly ahead of the curve on many things but this is truly visionary. Based on earlier technology and initiatives that Japanese companies already use for people to get interactive with a movie, but after visiting a site with a text code from the poster, they can now do that instantly with a major initiative by Soft Bank Mobile.
Using technology by Near Field Communication (NFC), Soft Bank Mobile customers can access trailers, movie stills, ringtones, etc... that are related to the film and are avilable from a customer syncing up with any poster that utilizes the technolgy by NFC, whihc sends targeted movie info directly and immemdialty to the the cionsumer.

This is a really, really great turn for new technolgies that will undoubtedly open the door to so many other types of digital signage and billboard type advertising, which will create fantastic opporutites veyr high ROI and CPM. Pint in fact, a recent reserach paper stated that digital signage and POS signage has teh best retention, just about 2 to 1 gretaer than TV an dinternet in terms of a conumer remebering the ad, what it was about, and any other distinsguishing elements about it.

For any content producer, ad compnay, or any one directly involved in digital media, this is a huge step forward towards the embrace of new technologies, and stronger ROI.

Continued growth in mobile advertising

More evidence to show that growth in advertising ROI is based and focused on off-deck, with the strongest numbers coming from that platform says Crisp Wireless.

Worth taking a stronger look at, but for all of the businesses deciding on where to focus their energy or marketing dollars for their content plays, off-deck seems to be the place.

the power of social networking through twitter

Most people by now have heard that users on Twitter have been signing up under the names of characters from the hit AMC show Mad Men with various posts in character.

While this has brought some publicity to the show the question remains what is the endgame and actual measurable benefit that is has had for the show?

Two things can be taken form this experiment, the first being the name and brand recognition for the show is increasing, and second that many users signed up to receive "tweets" from the character.

Going forward the success of future creative story arcs, and ones that are possibly pitching new products or services, could be based on further engaging the current and future audience by continuing the dialogue off-platform.

Unique way to engage that seems to have captured the imagination of many people.

Who has the right numbers for on-line metrics?

Many people, at a time including me, have thought on-line metrics to be more accurate and paint a much more detailed picture than TV. This was backed-up by very detailed numbers from on-line that provided a clear identity for a demographic group that advertisers covet, and content owners wanted to engage.

But now new numbers tell different story, especially when looking at what is funding and providing revenue for the majority of on-line shows - advertising.

While TV has fairly strong measurements pertaining to advertising buys, some on-line numbers are not providing actual and measurable numbers with regards to brand-integration and other forms of video and on-line advertising revenue. While on the surface it seems to be bad that there is not a n actual gauge of how revenue-generation, on-line video is increasing at such a pace that it can only provide conficdcne for the future.

And with companies like REV3 and FOUR YOUR IMAGINATION charging integration fees and CPM at 60-80 per 1000 it is only anythign but positive.

Great article and string recomendation to read.



accurate when looking at is not allow for specific The numbers show that

Where AD dollars are moving over the long tail!

Ad dollars are moving away from the traditional leaders on ad-spend to new platforms, specifically out-of-home and internet platforms. This shift will also include newspapers moving from first to second till 2010, when it will move to third place behind internet and digital platforms and broadcast TV.

This coming shift will further cement the significance of digital media and present both a challenge and opportunity for content producers and digital platforms as they work to make and faciltate those strategic partnerships that will pay the biggest dividends.

Her e is a link to an extensive study with lots of stats - http://www.vss.com/news/index.asp?d_News_ID=177